Ordinarily, a medicine which is dangerous when erroneously touched by a medical care staff, such as a carcinostatic agent or an immunosuppressant, is stored in a powdery state in a vial with a mouth portion sealed off by a rubber stopper.
In the case of taking the medicine out of such a vial, the following operations are carried out.
First, the mouth portion of the vial and a mouth portion of a syringe into which a dissolving liquid has been apportioned are connected to each other through a connector assembly composed of a first connector and a second connector. In this case, at an outer circumferential portion of the mouth portion of the syringe, there is provided a lock adapter formed with a screw thread at its inner circumferential surface (see, for example, Patent Document 1). At the time of connecting the syringe to a hub of the first connector, the lock adapter of the syringe is put into screw engagement with a screw engagement part formed on the hub of the first connector. As a result, the hub of the first connector and the mouth portion of the syringe are connected to each other, and the syringe is held on the hub of the first connector. Then, the first connector and the second connector connected to the mouth portion of the vial are connected to each other.
Next, the dissolving liquid is injected from the syringe into the vial via the connector assembly. Then, by a pumping operation or by shaking the vial, the medicine is uniformly dissolved in the dissolving liquid. Subsequently, the dissolving liquid with the medicine dissolved therein (hereinafter referred to as “liquid medicine”) is taken out into the syringe by suction.
However, the conventional connector assembly as above-mentioned has the following problems. Since the syringe is held onto the hub of the first connector by the lock adapter, the syringe would not be disengaged even when pulled. If the syringe or the lock adapter is rotated in a direction for loosening the screw engagement, however, the syringe would be disengaged easily. If the syringe is disengaged from the hub of the first connector, the liquid medicine is scattered via the mouth portion of the syringe or the like. As a result, the liquid medicine may adhere to the medical care staff or the like, or it may be impossible to transport the liquid medicine via the connector assembly safely and assuredly.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent No. 3456241